At last, human conscience has taken precedence over commercial interests. This was lately seen in a bold move by the multinational giant Google. Goggle has decided to shelve Project Maven, a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) program for development of drones, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help analyze huge amounts of captured surveillance footage.

Among the many problems confronting the oceans and seas such as climate change, global warming and sea level rise, a major issue of concern is the rapidly decreasing levels of oxygen present in the waters. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has cautioned that oxygen levels in the oceans, from the surface to the greatest depths, are worsening. This is due to indiscriminate discharge of pollutants, sewage, and industrial waste into the seas.

It can well be stated that India-Pakistan relation holds considerable significance in South Asia although the two neighbors have a checkered history of disturbed bilateral relations.

Free for one in sovereign water and EEZ to free for all beyond EEZs both have depleted the Ocean by competing demands with increasing disputes among countries.

The US Congress has recently taken a decision that inadvertently worked in favour of India. In an intrepid foreign policy decision, the Congress came down heavily on the offer made by Obama adminstration to Pakistan for sale of the state-of-art, all weather, and multi-role fighter defence equipment and refused to utilise American taxpayers’ money to fund the eight fighter jets to Pakistan.

Lately, the United States and some European nations have lifted oil and other financial sanctions on Iran and have also released roughly $100 billion of its assets after international inspectors concluded that Iran had complied on its promises to dismantle large sections of its nuclear programme. To signal that the relations are now moving towards friendship, just few hour before the implementation of the nuclear accord five Americans were released from Iran’s prison.

Accommodating corporate aspirations would be the biggest task before V K Atre Task Force on Strategic Partners.

In India, attempts at reforming complicated sectors like national defence invariably start with constitution of committees / task forces and thereafter the leadership battles conflicting positions on recommendations, leading to either shelving of such reports or at best partial implementation that are more ad-hoc than preferred solutions. A survey of committees constituted between 2002 and 2015 justifies this assessment.

India’s tryst with Saudi Arabia dates back to nearly five millennia when Indian sailors and merchants made regular forays in to the Arabian peninsula and forged commercial, cultural and civilisational links. In recent times, the relationship between the two countries has been marked by an upswing in the strategic partnership.

Seven years back, Nepal began the process to write an inclusive constitution in order to institutionalize the gains of the peace process, which took off in November 2006. Finally, the new Constitution was promulgated on September 20, 2015. Unfortunately, nearly over half of the Nepali population have branded the new Constitution as regressive and protested against the same. The anti-draft protests in Nepal, especially in the southern plains, started on August 9, immediately after the constitution making process was initiated.